This mode of retailing ices has crept into New York and Chicago, and is possibly an humble offshoot of the Anglomania now so prevalent throughout the United States. All in all, there is some discussion about where the phrase “hokey pokey” comes from. Alternative possible derivations include other similar-sounding Italian phrases: for example ecco un poco - "here is a (little) piece". All in all, there is some discussion about where the phrase “hokey pokey” comes from. Greedy Gourmet is an award winning food and travel blog. just love the name of this and so do the kids! Bring to the boil then remove from the heat. Some of you may know it as cinder toffee. The end result should be that the honeycomb maintains its crunch. Copyright © Michael Quinion, 1996–. Place the ingredients in a big bowl then beat with an electric whisk until really thick. Nor have I ever seen the flavour at any ice cream parlour. Its origin is open to dispute, though we know the term was first applied to ice cream in Britain. Go check out how I served my Amarula cheesecake recipe. One suggestion is Robert Green, who in 1874, ran out of the cream he usually used to flavor the sodas he was selling in Philadelphia. However, there is no reason why you should not make hokey pokey the flavour of your summer anyway. To get a bit of acidity onto the plate, I like to top off the hokey pokey ice cream with some fresh berries, like what I did in my sugar free angel food cake recipe. It might have been given to the inferior cornstarch-and-milk product of some of the less reputable early street sellers in Britain and then followed them across the ocean, though the term in the deceit sense was already known in the US. At the very least, I haven’t really seen it in any of the shops where I normally buy groceries in the UK. If that is the case, you can have a go at making your own honeycomb. Perhaps you are wondering what “hokey pokey” actually is. After 40 minutes of churning, add the honeycomb. Place the saucepan over medium-low heat. This is particularly desirable on a hot summer’s day or if you are serving the hokey pokey ice cream as a dessert for a big dinner. Like much in ice creams history it's not entirely clear! You can simply make your own ice cream. If berries are not your favourite thing you can serve the hokey pokey ice cream with other types of exotic fruit as well. In summary, hokey pokey is the New Zealand term for honeycomb toffee. Or it could have been Fred Sanders in Detroit who discovered the cream he used had gone sour. Its name might be an allusion to the hokey-pokey ice cream sold in the UK, though how it came to refer to a type of toffee is unclear, but there are New Zealand examples on record with that sense back to 1899, well inside the era of the hokey-pokey men. They would call out the hokey pokie rhyme mentioned above. The vendors, said to be mostly of Italian descent, supposedly used a sales pitch or song involving the phrase "hokey pokey", for which several origins have been suggested, although no certain etymology is known. Place the bowl into icy water and stir until the custard has cooled. That being said, you might find the ice cream slightly hard when you take it out of the freezer. Select your currency from the list and click Donate. Hokey-pokey already had another meaning, that of deception, cheating or underhand activity, first noted in the UK by James Halliwell-Phillipps in 1847.